Questions answered about the Continuity Bill case

QWhat is the case about?

A In March, MSPS passed the Continuity Bill, asserting the Scottish Parliament’s authority over two dozen powers returning to the UK after Brexit.

The Presiding Officer at Holyrood ruled that the legislation went beyond the competences of the Scottish Parliament, but the Scottish Government disagreed and pressed ahead anyway.

Now UK ministers have challenged the Continuity Bill, and asked the Supreme Court to rule on whether the legislation is constitutional.

Q

Why has the row reached the Supreme Court?

A

To make sure that UK law continues to

function on Brexit day after 44 years of being intertwined with EU law, the UK government put forward the EU Withdrawal Bill to copy Brussels regulations into British statute, to be kept, changed or discarded later.

However, that includes regulations in areas like agriculture, fisheries and the environment, where regulations set in Brussels were administered by devolved governments in the UK.

In order to prevent different regulatory regimes emerging after Brexit, creating trade barriers within the UK, the government in London proposed to keep hold of a number of those powers – eventually whittled down to two dozen.

However, despite months of negotiation between the Scottish and UK governments, the two sides could not reach a compromise on the principles of where those powers should lie, even though they did agree that there should be some form of joint control.

The Scottish Government said the EU Withdrawal Bill represented a “power grab” and a threat to devolution which is why it pursued its own Continuity Bill.

QWhat are the arguments on each side?

A The UK government says that because Westminster is the sovereign parliament, and the EU Withdrawal Bill sets out how powers returning from Brussels will be managed, the Scottish Parliament can’t legislate in those areas. It also argues that the Continuity Bill intervenes in treaty negotiations with the EU, which are reserved to Westminster under the Scotland Act.

The Scottish Government says its bill doesn’t interfere with negotiations as it only refers to what will be domestic law after Brexit. It argues that unless powers are listed as being reserved under Schedule 5 of the Scotland act, they are devolved.

Q

What happens next?

A The seven judges hearing the case can rule that the Continuity Bill is wholly within the Scottish Parliament’s competence or not – or it can send parts of the bill back for revision. A ruling isn’t expected before October.